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- Drake Bell says he made “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” in part because of his father.
- Bell thought it would be cathartic for his father to be able to talk about what had happened.
- “I’m sure my dad blames himself a lot, you know?” Bell said in “The Sarah Fraser Show“.
Drake Bell says he decided to open up about the sexual abuse he experienced as a child actor in part because of his father.
In an episode of “The Sarah Fraser Show” published on Friday, Bell spoke about her decision to share her story in the documentary series “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.”
Although he felt comfortable with the show’s producers, Bell said it took him some time to accept the project because he wasn’t ready to tell the world about it.
After their initial meeting, Bell shared that he entered rehab for therapy to process his trauma.
“Through that process, once I got out, I thought, ‘You know, maybe this is a good time to reach out to them and say, hey, I’m not 100% yet. Let’s talk a little more, but ‘I’m getting closer to feeling comfortable finally sharing my story,'” Bell told Fraser.
Bell shared that he was “very cautious” about involving his father, Joe Bell, in the docuseries, but ultimately decided to do it because he thought it would be helpful.
“Although I was struggling with ‘Oh my God, what am I doing telling my story? Should I do this?’ But also that feeling of ‘Wow, you know, it’s all there now. I can let off steam,'” Bell said. “I felt like maybe it would be cathartic and beneficial for my dad to be able to do it.”
“I’m sure my dad blames himself a lot, you know? And I thought this might be an opportunity for him to realize that, you know, it’s one person’s fault,” Bell added.
In “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV”, Bell says that he was the previously unnamed minor whose dialogue coach Brian Peck was accused of sexual abuse in 2004.
Peck worked on Nickelodeon’s “All That” and “The Amanda Show.” He was sentenced to 16 months in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender in October 2004.
But before he was sentenced, 41 of his family and friends, including prominent Hollywood celebrities such as Alan Thicke, James Marsden and Rider Strong, wrote letters in support of Peck.
Bell also told Fraser that he did not receive an apology from any of the people who supported Peck. She also shared that she only later discovered that she had worked with some of them on her show “Drake and Josh.”
“I had no idea that for four years I was working alongside people who had supported him, and probably in the back of their minds thought of me in a certain way, and I thought they were my friends,” Bell said.
